Reviews

The Scooby Doo franchise originally started out as a Dragon's Lair-style animated spectacle. However, when this overambitious plan inevitably went pear shaped, Elite drafted in Gargoyle Games to develop a much simpler game to release instead. Scooby must rescue his friends from a haunted castle whilst under near constant attack from ghosts who he can box away with a raised paw.

As a scrolling beat 'em up, it's neither particularly faithful to the cartoon, nor that great a game to play. Although fans of games along the lines of Kung Fu Master might possibly disagree, it certainly lacks the depth typical of most of their games. The graphics are up to the usual Gargoyle standard, however, with some great animation and detailed backgrounds, which is just enough to save the game from total mediocrity. The use of colour is rather minimal after the riot that was Light Force though.

Overall, I consider this one of Gargoyle's weakest games and a double disappointment given that Elite had obviously started out with much bigger plans for the license.

Originally, this game was supposed to be an 'interactive cartoon' in the style of 'Dragon's Lair' but this idea was eventually considered too ambitious for the Spectrum's hardware and dropped (probably for the best, to be honest). The game that was finally released using the Scooby Doo license was a scrolling action-platformer and is actually pretty good. It's very simple gameplay, largely running up and down stairs, jumping gaps and attacking baddies with an attack that makes Scooby look like an extra from the Bangles' 'Walk Like An Egyptian' video; but it's challenging and fun to play and it's never boring.

One of the most infamous games on the ZX Spectrum....because it took ages to be released!

Originally billed as the "first ever computer cartoon" similar to Dragon's Lair the project was eventually scrapped when it was realised the Spectrum simply wasn't able to achieve such ambitions. Eventually it was released over a year after the first previews came out and was turned into a much more simpler and convenient game where Scooby has to climb ladders and rescue his friends while attacking the baddies with his Egyptian dance.

Wasn't that bad a game really, just too much of the same and not enough variety. Oh well...I never really liked Scooby Doo anyway...yes I know I'm horrible, but so what.

Despite taking so long to make I did rather like this game, seemed so simple to play and get into and was quite enjoybale. The random appearances of the enemies is what spoils it for me, they can pop from out of nowhere to kill you which is so annoying. Not a bad game though.

by Gargoyle Games (Greg Follis, Roy Carter)

Should have been an astounding cartoonish game, but it turned out a very simple arcade game,
a frantic platformer with lots of jumping and stairs. Anyway, its spasmodic action can become addictive.
3,75/5

Always was a pretty nice game in spite of the development hell it went through. The gameplay works perfectly fine and it's good fun.